Moon Treaty
| type = | date_drafted = | date_signed = December 18, 1979 | location_signed = New York, USA | date_sealed = | date_effective = July 11, 1984 | condition_effective = 5 ratifications | date_expiration = | signatories = 11 | parties = 16 (as of May 2014) | depositor =Government of the United States of America | language = | languages = English, French, Russian, Spanish and Turkish | website = | wikisource =Moon Treaty }} The Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies,Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, Dec. 5, 1979, 1363 U.N.T.S. 3 better known as the Moon Treaty or Moon Agreement, is an international treaty that turns jurisdiction of all celestial bodies (including the orbits around such bodies) over to the international community. Thus, all activities must conform to international law, including the United Nations Charter. In practice it is a failed treaty because it has not been ratified by any state that engages in self-launched manned space exploration or has plans to do so (e.g. the United States, some member states of the European Space Agency, Russia, People's Republic of China, Japan, and India) since its creation in 1979, and thus has a negligible effect on actual spaceflight. As of 2014, it has been ratified by 16 states. Content The treaty would apply to the Moon and to other celestial bodies within the Solar System, other than Earth, including orbits around or other trajectories to or around them. The treaty makes a declaration that the Moon should be used for the benefit of all states and all peoples of the international community. It also expresses a desire to prevent the Moon from becoming a source of international conflict. To those ends the treaty does the following: *Bans any military use of celestial bodies, including weapon testing or as military bases. *Bans all exploration and uses of celestial bodies without the approval or benefit of other states under the common heritage of mankind principle (article 11). *Requires that the Secretary-General must be notified of all celestial activities (and discoveries developed thanks to those activities). *Declares all states have an equal right to conduct research on celestial bodies. *Declares that for any samples obtained during research activities, the state that obtained them must consider making part of it available to all countries/scientific communities for research. *Bans altering the environment of celestial bodies and requires that states must take measures to prevent accidental contamination. *Bans any state from claiming sovereignty over any territory of celestial bodies. *Bans any ownership of any extraterrestrial property by any organization or person, unless that organization is international and governmental. *Requires all resource extraction and allocation be made by an international regime. Ratification The treaty was finalized in 1979 and entered into force for the ratifying parties in 1984. As a follow-on to the Outer Space Treaty, the Moon Treaty intended to establish a regime for the use of the Moon and other celestial bodies similar to the one established for the sea floor in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The L5 Society and others successfully opposed ratification of the treaty by the US Senate.Chapter 5: O'Neills Children, Reaching for the High Frontier, The American Pro-Space Movement 1972-84, by Michael A. G. Michaud, National Space Society. As of May 2013, only 16 states (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Chile, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Uruguay) are parties to the treaty, 7 of which ratified the agreement and the rest acceded.Status of international agreements relating to activities in outer space as at 1 January 2008 United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, 2008 France, Guatemala, India and Romania have signed but not ratified.Status of international agreements relating to activities in outer space as at 1 January 2008 United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, 2008 See also * Outer Space Treaty References External links *Treaty Text — "Agreement Governing The Activities Of States On The Moon And Other Celestial Bodies" (1979) *Official Treaty Site — United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), including versions of the treaty in several languages: , , English, Français, Русский, and Español. 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